A PILOT asked nearly 200 weary British tourists to give a show of hands if they wanted to fly home on board an aircraft that he had personally repaired.

The holidaymakers had been stranded for seven hours in Minorca after the Boeing 757’s onboard computer repeatedly insisted that it was airborne despite being parked on the sweltering Tarmac.

Covered in oil after resetting a sensor in the aircraft’s nosewheel, the pilot stood on a chair in the terminal building and pleaded with the exhausted tourists to join him. But despite reassuring them that the MyTravel aircraft was safe, families were split over whether to board. In the end 13 passengers refused.

Johnathon McMillan, 36, said that his wife Fiona, 34, and son, Ross, 6, began to cry when one of the passengers mentioned his fear that the aircraft could crash. “I’ve never had to make a decision like that in my life before. If the truth be known, we thought it was a decision between life and death. The prospect of being in a plane which doesn’t know whether it’s in the air or on the ground is terrifying.

The aircraft had been due to fly at 5.20pm last Friday. Nearly seven hours later the pilot took off, and landed safely at Leeds-Bradford airport at 2.13am on Saturday.

The McMillan family flew home the next day. Mr McMillan paid £350 for his family to fly with another airline. They plan to try to claim back the money.

A MyTravel spokeswoman said that the problem was “merely a faulty indication light” and that the captain had kept passengers fully informed at all times. “Any customer who did not choose to fly was assisted with alternative flight options.”

Ewen Godrey, 50, a senior education officer from Bingley, West Yorkshire, also refused to board. He said: “There were a lot of scared people.” He said that passengers were told that accommodation on the island was full and they would have to pay for their own flights back if they did not board.

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